1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to printhead maintenance, and, more particularly, to an ink jet printhead garage configured to perform maintenance functions.
2. Description of the Related Art
An imaging apparatus, such as an ink jet printer, includes an ink jet printhead having a plurality of ink jetting nozzles formed in a nozzle plate. The ink jet printhead may be attached, for example, to a printhead cartridge having an integral ink reservoir. The ink jet printer includes a maintenance station that performs maintenance operations to preserve the life of the associated printhead.
Such a maintenance station for an ink jet printer typically includes a printhead wiper and a printhead capping mechanism for performing a printhead wiping operation and a printhead capping operation, respectively, in the ink jet printer. In addition, other maintenance operations may be performed by the printer, such as for example, a printhead spit operation, wherein the ink jetting nozzles are fired, such as for example, after wiping and prior to capping. Also, some ink jet printers may include a vacuum device for performing a printhead priming and suction operation. In such instances, for printhead maintenance to be performed, the printhead is installed in the printer, and more particularly, in the reciprocating carrier of the printer.
Early ink jet printers were often referred to as “head swapping” ink jet printers due to the requirement of exchanging a monochrome printhead cartridge and a color printhead cartridge during print jobs that included both color and monochrome print areas. Thus, there has been a need for a device to store the uninstalled printhead in a way that it could be used again in the future. Early attempts at preserving the uninstalled printhead cartridge include a simple printhead garage having capping only functionality, and used to cap the nozzle plate of the printhead cartridge, in order to attempt to prevent the drying out and clogging of the nozzles of the uninstalled printhead cartridge during periods of disuse. However, such a garage may not be adequate to accommodate the demands of current printing practice.
Current ink jet printers typically support photo printing, e.g., six color printing, in addition to normal printing. With such printers, a user may have, for example, three printhead cartridges, e.g., a color cartridge, a monochrome cartridge, and a photo cartridge, of which only two cartridges are installed in the ink jet printer at any one time, while the third cartridge is removed. Thus, a need still exists for a device for preserving the uninstalled printhead cartridge in proper working order.